1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for unloading cured tires from a tire vulcanizing press, and more particularly to a tire unloading apparatus which is capable of unloading cured tires in a smooth and secure manner without causing shocks or deformations thereto and which is constructed in a compact form to minimize the moving space required for the unloading operation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have been proposed and known in the art various kinds of tire unloaders for removing cured tires from a tire curing press. The known tire unloaders are largely classified into a type which is arranged to advance ejecting arms toward the center of the press to support and tilt a cured tire toward the discharging side and to throw it rearwardly, and a type which is arranged to support and carry a cured tire in a horizontal posture for discharging the same rearwardly. The former tilting and throwing type has a drawback in that the thrown tire sometimes fails to drop at a predetermined point, in addition to the problems connected with accuracy, including difficulty in centering the tire accurately especially in case the tire has to be set on a post inflator or the like in a succeeding stage. Besides, large and heavy tires are susceptible to the problems of deformation or distortion due to the large shocks which are imposed when the tires are dropped on a stopper mechanism immediately after curing. In the case of the latter horizontal transfer type, the tires have to be moved vertically before and after transferring them horizontally into and out of the curing press in order to evade the tire, forming mechanism, consequently requiring a large installation space in both horizontal and vertical directions. Obviously, in this case a large unloading mechanism has to be provided, enlarging the size of the tire-vulcanizing press as a whole and inviting problems regarding cost versus performance.